Jun 22, 2007

Back at the figure drawing club, and danged if the model didn't show. Luckily the head of the organization lent his body to our prying artist eyes. We had oh so much fun. When you know the person modeling you feel a lot better about adding silly props and things to your pictures.

In my head I assumed he was playing The Final Countdown.

I apologize about the horns.

This was an idea that everyone was chiding the model for when he was up there. It's hard to see that pose and not think of a khaki ad.

Jun 11, 2007

So I found yet another sketchbook lying about that I'd barely used...that happens a lot more than it should. Statistically I'd have to guess that there are about 86 half-full sketchbooks amongst my belongings. if I ever get through an entire one the world might suck into itself.

I took this one on the L, which was awesome cause it's big, spiral-bound, and I had like an hour to draw. Here's one of the pages I filled. It's fun to draw on the train cause it really shows you how much you can zone out while sketching. You'll actually forget there's a woman with 12 screaming kids getting yelled at by a big guy with crunchy pants from the Salvation Army.

Jun 8, 2007

Here are some storyboards to the alien short I posted clips from a while back. I used some of the poses here as references for the animation. It's a good, smart, time-saving technique.

For those unfamiliar, it's about a ship that crashes in an unknown area, and the alien inside investigates his surroundings. He finds a large monster that turns out to be a small bird, and we discover that this strange environment is simply a tree in some neighborhood. The bird believes the alien to be one of its own. Cute.

Jun 5, 2007

Whoops. I went away there briefly. But I'm back now with a small visual lesson. Recently I read that if you aren't satisfied with a piece you should try again; start over.

This sounds pretty obvious, but more often than not if something I did wasn't working I'd either move to something else (something easier, no doubt) or get too frustrated to make anything work. There were times when, with the mindset of "I did this wrong", that I could try the same piece 100 times and they'd all be lacking.

When I read this, suddenly the concept made sense. It's all about a state of mind. If you do something you're not satisfied with, do it again. BUT instead of the "I can't do it" mindset, give yourself the "this time will be better" mindset. It's easy to quit after not getting something right off the bat. I'm certainly victim to that.

Keep trying, though. Something will come out if your mindset is positive. Here are two pieces that solidified that idea for me.

The first: I was experimenting in Corel Painter and drew this...thing. It was just an experiment and at first I was a little proud, simply because I got the program to produce something. No small feat for a non-painter.

Of course, 10 minutes later I started disliking it...a lot. Then came the application of that idea try it again and make it better. I went into another, brand new flower painting WITH A HOPEFUL ATTITUDE and produced the following...

Again, I'm no painter, but it looks a hell of a lot better than the last one. It's things like this that give me hope. Stay positive, folks.

Jun 1, 2007

So I finally got to sit and just crank with figure drawing exercises tonight. Those can really take a lot out of a guy...especially since I've been out of regular practice for a while. Regardless, it was really refreshing. Thank God for Figure Drawing Club. I know now I'll be a regular member.

The pics I found for today branch out a little more than others that I've been posting. Don't wanna fall into a habit or anything. I'll be posting some of those figure sketches soon.

This was one of those pieces where I surprised myself even before I was finished. Those circumstances are beyond rare, but they sure make you feel better about yourself.

I painted!!! With paint!!! Some people have trouble discerning what this is. It's a swordfish...for the record.